How do we find and fix a leak in our HOA pool?

By OurHOA · General information · Revised October 28, 2026

How an HOA board confirms a pool leak with a bucket test, narrows it to plumbing or shell, hires leak detection, checks drain covers and permits, and pays for it.

Part of the HOA board handbook: vendors, projects and upkeep.

The short answer

A pool that keeps needing water is losing it to evaporation, splash-out and backwash, or to a leak. Prove which one before you pay anyone. Turn the autofill off and run a bucket test for two to three days. If the pool drops more than the water in the bucket, you have a leak. Run the test again with the pump on and then with it off to tell a plumbing leak from a shell leak. Then hire a leak detection company to find the exact spot, get the repair priced against its written report, and check the drain covers and any permit rules before the pool reopens. Most leaks caught early turn out to be a fitting, a cracked skimmer throat or a light niche. The expensive ones are the leaks a board ignored for a whole season while the autofill quietly topped the pool off and the water bill climbed.

Signs that point to a leak

The first clue is usually the water bill, not the pool. Watch for an autofill valve that runs more often than it did last summer, a water bill that rose with no change in irrigation, chemical use creeping up because fresh fill water keeps diluting the chlorine and stabilizer, soft or wet ground near the pool or the equipment pad, cracked tile at the waterline, and a deck that is separating from the coping. Check the autofill itself before anything else. The City of Chandler, Arizona warns that a stuck fill valve running nonstop can waste up to 30,000 gallons in a month, and that unprotected PVC pipe in the sun breaks down quickly. Then do the math so the board sees what the leak costs. One inch of water over one square foot is about 0.62 gallons. A 25 by 50 foot pool has 1,250 square feet of surface, so every inch it loses is about 780 gallons. A leak that takes an extra half inch a day is roughly 390 gallons a day, or about 11,700 gallons a month, before you count chemicals and heat.

Run the bucket test the right way

Give the test to one person, the pool committee chair or whoever services the pool, and have them log every reading with the date and time. Chandler's water conservation page lays out the method. Turn off the autofill. Set a bucket on a pool step so it is not submerged, and weigh it down with a brick. Fill it until the water inside matches the pool level. Mark the water level inside the bucket with tape or a water-soluble marker, and mark the pool level on the outside of the bucket. Wait two to three days. If the pool's mark dropped more than the bucket's, you probably have a leak. If both dropped the same amount, you are looking at evaporation. Keep the pump schedule normal, do not backwash during the test, and start over if it rains. Then narrow it down. Chandler suggests running the test for 24 to 48 hours with the pump on and another 24 to 48 hours with it off. Losing more water with the pump running points to the plumbing. Also note where the level stops falling if you let it drop. A pool that always settles at the bottom of the skimmer opening or the top of a light is telling you where to look.

What a volunteer can check and what to leave alone

A board member can walk the equipment pad with the pump running and look for drips at the pump lid, unions, valves and the filter drain plug, plus wet soil, white crust or green staining on the pad. They can look at the skimmer throats, where the skimmer meets the pool wall, at the returns and light rims, and along the tile line for cracks. With the pump off and the water still, squeeze a few drops of pool test dye next to a suspected crack. If the dye drifts into the crack, water is leaving there. Take photos of anything you find. Stop at the shallow end. Do not have a volunteer dive the deep end, pull a drain cover, open a light niche or cut into the deck. The main drain, the suction lines and anything under concrete belong to a licensed contractor, and a removed drain cover is a safety problem the moment anyone gets back in the water.

Hire leak detection, then price the repair

Leak detection companies pressure test each line, listen for escaping water underground and dive the shell with dye. Ask for a written report that lists each line tested and the result, the location of every leak, photos, and the repair they recommend. Consider hiring the detection firm and the repair firm separately, at least the first time. A company that only finds leaks has no reason to find more than exist. Use the report as the scope when you ask for repair bids, as described in our guide on how to write an HOA request for proposal. Common repairs run from underwater epoxy on a skimmer crack, to a new light niche seal, to cutting the deck to replace a broken return line. If the deck has to come up anyway, compare that cost against our guide on replacing an HOA pool deck before you patch the same slab twice. Sample motions: 'Move to hire [company] to pressure test and locate leaks in the pool shell, skimmers, returns and main drain lines for no more than $[amount], with a written report to the board before any repair is approved.' Then: 'Move to approve [contractor] to make the repairs listed in the leak detection report dated [date] for $[amount], with a follow-up bucket test after the work.'

Drain covers, permits and draining rules

Rules vary by state, by city and by your governing documents, and this guide is education, not legal advice. Start with federal law. The Virginia Graeme Baker Pool and Spa Safety Act, 15 U.S.C. 8003, requires compliant anti-entrapment drain covers on public pools, and its definition of a public pool includes pools open only to residents of a residential real estate development. That covers most HOA pools. If the repair touches a main drain or equalizer, the CPSC's 2023 reminder letter to pool operators tells you what to check: the cover carries the required standard marking, it is intact with no missing screws, it is within the manufacturer's stated lifespan, and its gallons-per-minute rating is at or above the pool's flow. The CPSC recommends replacing covers past their expiration date. In Florida, Fla. Stat. 514.03(1) says anyone who wants to construct, develop or modify a public pool must apply to the Department of Health before applying for a building permit, so call the county health office before structural work. Fla. Stat. 514.0115(3) exempts pools of HOAs with no more than 32 units or parcels from most supervision, but not from water quality rules. Texas and Colorado cities set the draining rules. Round Rock, Texas bans draining water with total residual chlorine of 1 ppm or more to the storm drain and prohibits direct hose connections to it. Westminster, Colorado bans chlorinated pool water in storm drains and ditches, with a penalty of up to $1,000. Let the contractor decide whether the pool needs draining at all. Chandler notes that portable water restoration systems can sometimes avoid it.

A sample timeline and owner notice

Day 1: someone notices the pool or the water bill and checks the autofill and the equipment pad. Days 2 to 4: bucket test with the pump on. Days 4 to 6: bucket test with the pump off. Week 2: get two detection quotes and approve one at a meeting, or by written consent if your documents and state law allow it. Week 3: detection visit and written report. Weeks 3 to 5: repair bids, approval and the repair. The week after: run the bucket test again to confirm the fix and file the results. Post a short notice so owners do not move the bucket or fiddle with the fill valve: 'The pool is losing more water than evaporation explains. This week we are running a water-level test, so please leave the bucket on the steps alone and do not adjust the fill valve. The pool stays open unless we post otherwise. We will share what the leak detection company finds and what the repair will cost.'

Paying for it and the mistakes boards make

Detection is usually an operating expense. A full replumb or resurfacing may belong to a reserve component, so check the reserve study before you take money from the wrong account. Read the property policy for how it treats wear and tear, gradual leaks and underground pipe, and ask the agent in writing before you assume a claim. Ask the water utility whether it offers a leak adjustment, and send the detection report and repair invoice with the request. Our guide on disputing a master-metered water bill covers how to present that case. The mistakes repeat from pool to pool: running the bucket test with the autofill on, calling the leak fixed because the level held for one afternoon, letting the repair company be the only one to confirm its own work, reopening without checking the drain covers, draining chlorinated water into the street, and skipping the log that the next board will need when the same skimmer cracks again in three years.

Sources

These guides are general education for HOA boards and residents, not legal, tax, or financial advice. Rules vary by state and by your community's governing documents - check with a professional for your situation.

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